Is Glenn Maxwell going the Shahid Afridi way?

His stakes were not so high in the cricketing world yet when the Mumbai Indians bought him for a whopping $1 million in the auctions for the IPL 2013. If you had asked cricket fans from Glenn Maxwell back then, they would have told you that they had heard about him but did not remember him too well.

Back then, he was the maverick from Melbourne who could dare to pull a stunt in T20 cricket and at times even get away with it. Maybe an audacious reverse scoop off a fast bowler that looked too incredible to be true. But the very next ball, he would sky a length delivery and walk back to the pavilion.

No one cared much about him. He could hit the ball a mile but he was just another of those meaningless blokes in the T20 firmament who was sure to disappear sooner or later. With his technique or the lack of it, no one gave him much of a chance.

But maverick though he was, Maxwell had a method to his madness. After securing the bumper IPL contract, he soon broke into the Australian Test team that year and went on to establish himself in the ODI side. His strange technique outlived the crazy prophecies and for a few years, he seemed to have carved out a niche of his own.

Brilliant performances

Glenn Maxwell was one of the stars for Australia in the 2015 World Cup

A string of good domestic performances had ensured that Maxwell rose through the ranks and made it to the national team. In 2011, he had hit the fastest ever half-century in Australian domestic one day cricket, scoring 50 off just 19 balls.

During the early days in his career, he was looked upon as a potential all-rounder as he picked up four wickets in the second ODI against the West Indies in 2013. In the first ODI of that series, Australia had tried him out as an opener and he had responded brilliantly scoring 51 off 35 balls while chasing a miserly total of 71.

In that same year, when Maxwell was becoming a permanent member of the Australian ODI side, he began to prioritize application rather than mayhem to cement his place. Odd occasions such as the innings he played against India in the 4th ODI at Ranchi in October that year showed that he could play a different kind of an innings if need be.

Walking in with the Aussies tottering at 71 for 4, he played a sedated knock working the ball into gaps and stringing together a vital partnership with George Bailey. He scored 92 off 95 deliveries, in the end, taking the team total to 295 for 8 off 50 overs.

And in the 7th ODI at Bangalore, he played a contrasting knock while chasing a mammoth 383 posted by India. His 60 off 22 balls coming at a strike-rate 272.72 almost gave the Indians a scare at one stage. Though the headlines in that match were made by Rohit Sharma who scored a blistering double hundred, Maxwell quietly showed his teammates that he can be a more than useful cricketer.

The message had been sent – Maxwell could play both kinds of knock if need be. Throw in his ability to quietly slip in a few overs and he became a great utility cricketer to have for any side. With his unconventional style and impromptu improvisations, Maxwell soon became an out and out match-winner.

He continued his good performances with a quick fire 93 off 46 balls against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club in 2014. Going into the ICC World Cup in 2015, Maxwell was a crucial weapon adding firepower to the Australian artillery. He rounded off his preparations with a solid 95 against England in the Carlton Mild ODI tri-series final.

The stage was set for Maxwell to unleash and he did not disappoint. He scored a fast 66 of 40 balls against England in the second match of the World Cup and then followed it up with a devastating 39-ball 88 against Afghanistan. He seemed to have come into his own as against Sri Lanka he blasted his way to a 53-ball 102. Maxwell was doing what everyone knew what he could do, but he was also exceeding expectations.

And in the quarter-finals against Pakistan, he scored a crucial 29-ball 44 that weathered the storm raised by the Pakistani bowlers and helped Australia sail into the semi-final. As the Aussies lifted the world cup trophy that year, Maxwell was an unmistakable hero. He had, like the others in the squad, played his part.

The fall from grace

2016 hasn’t been the best of years for the Australian big-hitter

If 2015 was the story of success, 2016 has only thrown failure in the way of Maxwell that have set the alarm bells ringing. Going into the ICC T20 World Cup in India this year, the Aussies were keen to lay their hands on a trophy they have never won till date. And Maxwell was predictably going to be their talisman in the shortest format of the game.

But the jinx continued as the Australians failed to step up when most required. Maxwell disappointed like his teammates getting starts in most of the matches but failing to kick on when most required. The T20 World Cup ended on a sad note for the Aussies and in keen contrast to what had happened in the 50-over world cup the last year, some of the greatest Aussie players of the present generation were under scrutiny for their poor performances.

And Maxwell was one of those players under tremendous pressure as he seemed to have got into a rut. When Australia lost the tri-series by failing to chase down the paltry South-African total of 189, the focus was firmly on Glenn Maxwell.

Following the poor performances in the T20 World Cup, he had carried his miserable form into the series against New Zealand and the tri-series against the West Indies and South Africa. Scores from his last five ODIs, all in single digits, are 0,6,0,0,3.

For a cricketer who was named the ODI player of the year at the annual Allan Border medal in January for his average of 46 and strike-rate of 135.86 in ODIs last year, his average in 2016 has slipped to a miserly 22.25 in one-dayers.

His T20 form has also been nothing to write home about. After the disastrous T20 World Cup campaign, he had an equally forgettable IPL this year, where he amassed 179 runs at an average of under 20 for an insipid Kings XI Punjab. Compare that to the fact that he was the player of the tournament in the IPL in the 2014 season and you can get a clear hint of which way the graph is headed for the Australian maverick.

The Australian press have been unforgiving, lambasting Maxwell recently for his poor performances. Unsavoury comparisons have already surfaced with Shahid Afridi whose most remembered innings is still his 37-ball century, which was the fastest in ODIs at that time. The fact that this innings came fairly towards the beginning of Afridi's career might suggest that he has done precious little for the rest of his career.

In all fairness, Afridi with the likes of Jayasuriya, lit up an era in the late 90s, when they changed the way cricket was played by beginning to take advantage of the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs. Though cricket changed undeniably because of their contributions, while Jayasuriya is hailed unanimously as one of the greatest, Afridi remains a polarising figure among Pakistani fans.

Most fans like to believe that Afridi had overstayed his tenure in international cricket, continuing as a bits-and-pieces cricketer whose reputation always preceded his performances. Maxwell, quite interestingly, has elicited such aggressive polarised opinions among his fans with some defending him to come out of this bad patch while others more impatient to call time on him soon enough.

But if there's one thing that Maxwell can be certain about it is that with the aggressive performance-oriented approach of the Aussie selectors, no one can hope to overstay in Australian cricket.

He still has time on his side and will surely get a few more opportunities. But with every next time that he walks back to the pavilion now after failing to execute a perfect a reverse scoop, mild consternation will begin to give away to sordid impatience. Like with Afridi at the twilight of his career, Maxwell would not like himself to be remembered as the maverick who rode his luck.